That night, Hermione did dream of Fred. She dreamt of the coolness of the autumn evening and their time at the fair, reliving their date at the fair in a technicolor world that rivaled the whirling lights and sounds of the actual event. She smiled and shifted in her sleep as she felt the breeze in her hair from the Ferris wheel. Her world was a whirl of bright lights against the night, a warm arm around her shoulders.
She felt lips on her neck, suckling beneath her ear and sighed into the sensation. Relaxing into the kiss, she turned her lips to join with Fred's and found that, rather than laughing brown eyes, she met the cool black eyes of her mentor. She jerked back from Snape only to find herself backed into a Giant Hogweed bush - towering even by the plant's standards - and felt her skin burst into flame beneath a suddenly sunny sky.
She shouted in her sleep as she felt her skin char and watched in horror as it blackened and shriveled on her arms. Her dream self stared at the two charcoal sticks that were once her arms as they crumbled to dust.
She groaned in pain as callused hands shook her from sleep. "Granger. Dammit Granger, wake up."
Her eyes snapped open to see her professor leaning over her once again. "We have to stop meeting like this," she grumbled.
"I would be inclined to agree," he replied, pulling her upright. Hermione missed the way his normally pale face colored as he caught sight of her sleepwear - a thin, cotton babydoll nightie whose spaghetti straps had definitely not stayed in place. "Was it a scar dream again?" he asked, distracting his baser thoughts with his reason for invading her rooms at four in the morning.
"No," she murmured. "Just a nightmare. The flowers…" she trailed off before shaking herself resignedly. "It's alright. I'll be alright, I mean. I'm sorry to wake you again."
"Hm, well. You're lucky tomorrow is not a teaching day. Go back to sleep. We will redouble our occlumency efforts this week," he ordered brusquely.
"Okay," she said, tiredly snuggling under the duvet again. "G'night Severus." She was fast asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
He stood in her room far longer than was necessary before replying. "Good night. Hermione."
✿HG/SS✿
"Don't you look like death warmed over," Minerva remarked in the morning. "I do hope that's because of your young man and not because Severus is working you to death."
"Neither, unfortunately. Bad dreams," Hermione said as she scaped butter onto her muffin.
Minerva nodded sagely. "Ah, yes. I know how those work."
"I think we all know how those work these days. Severus and Albus are working with me on Occlumency in the hopes that it will help."
"War dreams?" Neville asked gently from her other side.
"No. Flower dreams this time. Those damned 'bouquets' from my so-called admirer."
"Yeah, about that…" Neville started to say before Severus's hand made a sharp gesture in front of his plate.
"Not here, Longbottom. This is not the place."
"Right. Sorry."
The staff returned to their meals, each lost in their own thoughts. Hermione knew that she should be worried about the flowers - and their sender - but she repeatedly found her thoughts wandering back to the earlier part of her dream. The feel of Snape's lips on her neck. The warmth of his body.
She knew it was just a dream and that such experiences had been entirely in her head, but a part of her couldn't help but look at her mentor speculatively.
She supposed it wasn't surprised that Snape had made a sudden appearance in her dreamscape. He was a constant presence in her life, controlling the minutiae of her daily schedule as no professor ever had. The worked together in the classroom, in the lab, over Occlumency lessons. And he had a certain...magnetic personality, she acknowledged to herself.
He was also a complete and utter bastard at regular intervals, but Hermione was rather used to that. Really, when you concentrated on the content of his comments rather than the tone in which they were delivered, he was usually pretty funny.
Huh. Snape was funny.
And kind. All that business with the teas and the Occlumency. And coming to wake her when her nightmares took control. It certainly didn't match up with the idea of Severus Snape that she'd built over the past seven years.
It definitely didn't match up with Ron and Harry's.
And he wasn't bad looking. A change in shampoo and he might even be attractive. The nose wasn't even that big a deal, really. And he had nice shoulders and narrow hips. He was stronger than he looked. Not a bad package, all in all.
Wait what am I doing? Hermione's thoughts jolted her out of her assessment of her master's physique and temperament. Is there a reason you're eyeing your mentor as though you're making a pro and con list as to whether or not to snog him? Eyes down, Hermione, and eat your damned breakfast before he notices something is wrong!
✿HG/SS✿
Severus noticed that his apprentice seemed to be oddly focused on her breakfast that morning and Minerva, the catty witch, was acting equally oddly.
"Why are you smirking at your porridge, Minerva?" Severus bit off.
If anything, the smirk broadened. "You seem to be rather selectively attentive this morning, Severus."
"Meaning?"
His old friend cleared her throat. "Meaning your Slytherins are currently in the process of prodding the Hufflepuff table into starting a food fight. Ah, too late," she said as the first muffin winged across the hall like a crumb-laden frisbee.
The smirk returned when he stormed off in a flurry of robes to halt the fight and assign detentions.
"Aren't you supposed to be helping him dear?" Minerva asked Hermione.
"Am I?" Hermione hadn't been a part of disciplinary procedures before.
Minerva nodded decisively. "I should think so. You will, after all, help him supervise detentions. I think this would be a good practical learning experience for you. We'll discuss it in further detail at our pedagogy lesson later this week."
"Of course, Minerva. I'll just...um...get right to that then." Hermione set her muffin down and rose to help her mentor defuse the rapidly escalating food fight.
Ten minutes, several dodged blobs of porridge, and a croissant to the head later (crumbs and curls do not mix!), Hermione assigned her first detentions. "Warner, Parsons, and Bratfisch, you will serve detentions with Mr. Filch tonight after dinner. Bring your toothbrushes. Merryweather and Yar, you will work with me this evening. I recommend you wear robes you do not particularly value. Now get to class, all of you."
Hermione glanced up at her mentor as the five Hufflepuffs scampered off toward their classes. From the looks of it, he'd just given several Slytherins a severe dressing down. He met her eye and gave her a terse nod of approval before removing the butter stains from his hem and making his way toward the dungeons. Hermione stared after him, tilting her head in silent near-admiration of his smooth gait.
"Coming, apprentice? Our classes will not teach themselves."
"Right!" She stood up straight and scampered after him.
✿HG/SS✿
Albus was halfway through yet another tedious scroll from the ministry - begging for access to Snape's magicae remotio as though the headmaster had the ability to give it to them. With a sigh, he continued reading in case the letter contained something that he actually could help with. A rap at the door drew him away from the frustrating letter.
"Enter."
"Albus."
"Minerva, how are you this morning? Classes are going well, I take it?"
She nodded and seated herself as Albus summoned their habitual tea from the kitchens. "They are doing well enough. No stand-out students, but it's early days yet."
"Well, that is a disappointment. But as you say, early days. Are we waiting for Filius?" he asked as he set the strainer over a cup.
"No. Whatever for?"
"I'm sorry, I assumed you were here to talk about the Halloween feast and dance. I can see that was incorrect. How can I help, Minerva?"
She set a small bag of galleons on the table. "I'm here as a representative of the faculty. We want in."
Albus gave her a faint smile and passed over her doctored cup of tea (milk, no sugar) before preparing his own (milk, many sugars). "I beg your pardon?"
"Don't play coy with me, Albus Dumbledore. We know that you and Phineus have a bet concerning potential romantic entanglement between Severus and Hermione. A bet between two isn't much to sneer at, but a bet between all...well, that's something to get excited about. Here are our bets. I've a list of each." She thrust a parchment toward Albus and sipped her tea while he read it through.
"This is a very thorough list."
"Yes."
"Even Hagrid placed a bit."
"Yes."
Albus raised an eyebrow and gestured toward the page a bit more forcefully. "He bet a blast-ended skrewt."
"He did. I'm told this latest set of hatchlings is much more cuddly than the last. They have fur. Though it's patchy. And mostly on their underbellies."
"Are they still blast-ended?"
"They are." She sipped again, favoring her long-time partner in crime with a smile. "Do we have a deal?"
The older wizard sighed before rolling the scroll and tapping it with his wand. It briefly glowed orange before it, and the bag of galleons, floated out of the room and into, Minerva assumed, one of the headmaster's many hidden caches. "We do."
Minerva set her cup down with a clink. "Excellent. Then I'll bid you a good morning Albus."
✿HG/SS✿
As Halloween drew closer, Hermione found herself growing more tense. Albus had planned a Halloween feast and alumni ball to celebrate the fall of Tom Riddle and his ilk. While Hermione was all for celebration, she was also more than b it aware that the last attempt to claim victory-through-dance had resulted in the mass hexing of nearly all her friends and teachers.
Nevertheless, maintaining a castle meant that the school needed donations and donations did not come from current students. As the two students relaunching the Hogwarts apprentice programme, Hermione and Neville were expected to be on display. That display was what worried Hermione most. Between avoiding the Ministry's attention and trying to puzzle out who'd been sending her the flowers - as well as her normal routine, preparing for the press at the ball, and trying to find time to see Fred - Hermione was feeling more than a bit stressed.
All the same, when the evening of the ball finally arrived Hermione was just a bit excited. Ginny had kidnapped her the previous weekend to find yet another dress. Hopefully this one wouldn't end up cursed to shreds and covered in blood. She'd opted for a burnt umber color this time 'round. She didn't want to dress in typical Halloween colors, but the warm tone flattered her skin and seemed autumnal to her. She paired the chiffon halter dress with coppery heels and jewelry and thought the effect was both sophisticated and sexy, while still remaining appropriate for the a school apprentice.
It didn't hurt that the outfit would compliment her ginger haired escort either.
"Hey love," Fred said with a grin, giving her a loose hug to avoid mussing her. "You look stunning."
"Thanks, Fred. You look pretty dapper yourself." He really did His hair was slicked back in a loose wave, avoiding the pinned-back look Percy was prone to, and his black dress robes fit him well. Hermione contained a little sigh at the dragon skin lapels, but...well, Fred would be Fred.
"Shall we?" he asked, offering an arm. She nodded and allowed him to escort him into the Great Hall, where the evening's feast was already laid out. She ignored the blatant wolf whistles from the upper years of her own house as they moved through the room.
All the guests were seated at the front part of each house table; escorts and dates of the staff were allowed to sit at the expanded head table. Hermione and Fred took a seat at the far end, near Ron and Neville, and listened to Dumbledore's speech welcoming the alumni back to Hogwarts. He stressed the importance of rebuilding after Voldemort and of the ties each witch and wizard owed to Hogwarts. He also asked for them to be generous of heart and of wallet when donations were solicited, pointing to the newly revived apprentice programme and the future of the wizarding world (the seated children) as examples of those most benefitting from charitable donation.
Dumbledore's speech was thankfully short. He ended with a genial smile and an invitation for everyone to tuck into the feast, which the visiting alumni seemed to do with gusto. Hermione allowed Fred to serve her a portion of ham as she served them both potatoes au gratin from the communal dish.
Once the younger students had been sent to bed, the seventh years, guests, and staff rose to allow the Minerva and Filius to vanish the tables. They were quickly replaced by smaller cocktail tables, a refreshment stand, and a small bandstand for what appeared to be a ten piece orchestra. The ball had officially begun.